Smyth leaves Cheltenham festival

Sarah Smyth has stepped down from her role as artistic director of The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival.
 
Smyth joined Cheltenham Literature Festival as Festival organiser in 1995 and was promoted to Festival director ahead of the Festival’s 50th anniversary in 1999. In 2011, she took a part-time role as artistic director of the Literature Festival.  
 
She said: “I am proud of what I have achieved working as part of such a committed team and it has been a great privilege and an enormous pleasure to see the Festival expand its creative breadth and quadruple in size during my time here.”
 
Jane Furze, Literature Festival director, said: “It has been my pleasure to work with Sarah for the last three years. I would like to thank her personally and on behalf of Cheltenham Festivals for her great commitment to the Literature Festival and the organisation as a whole and for the outstanding artistic direction she has guided the Festival in during her tenure.”
 
Nicola Tuxworth is taking on the role of head of programming, working alongside Furze. Tuxworth joined Cheltenham Festivals in 2006 and has been instrumental in leading the establishment of the Spiegeltent venue, the development of the politics and current affairs event collections, and new formats for fiction.
 
Furze added: “I am immensely proud that Cheltenham continues to go from strength to strength – the team and I will continue to work closely with publishers and other partners to create a lively, stimulating Festival programme of breadth and artistic integrity.